Business
Oil theft: NIMASA set to curb menace with special mission aircraft

Adebayo Obajemu
Dr. Bashir Jamoh, Director General of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), has assured that two special mission aircrafts in the deep blue project fleet of the agency will be put into use to fight oil theft and protect the nation’s economy.
He disclosed this at the recently held 16th edition of the Maritime Seminar for Judges organized by the Nigerian Shippers’ Council, Jamoh.
He stated that oil theft, pipeline vandalism and illegal refining are not only unlawful but constitute economic sabotage capable of threatening the economic and environmental well-being of the country.
He gave assurances that the aircrafts from the mobile assets of the deep blue project, will henceforth be deployed to support existing platforms being put in place by other security agencies, which he said NIMASA has subsisting Memorandum of Understanding with.
Jamoh said the aircrafts would assist in patrolling oil facilities, installations and other assets to observe suspicious human and vessel movements in and around the facilities
He said, “We shall be deploying our 2 special mission aircrafts for aerial surveillance to prevent and fight oil theft in the country. With this, we aim at using the aircrafts to patrol sensitive areas, record suspicious human and vessel movements to process intelligence for timely action by our security agencies
“The oil industry is critical to our national economy and no space of the sector should be left for criminals to occupy or operate. We have recorded gains in our maritime security efforts and more needs to be done to sustain and consolidate on these gains.
“Our collaborations with security agencies which we have MoUs with is, among other reasons, to collaborate and work ahead of criminal elements. I am happy to state that our synergies have been beneficial to the country in many ways,” Jamoh said.